Should there be a Marine Recreational Fishing License in Rhode Island?

Jenna Richardson
Bachelor's of Arts in Environmental Studies
May 2002

This paper addresses the question of whether or not there should be a marine recreational fishing license in Rhode Island. For many years there has been a freshwater recreational fishing license and in many other states there are saltwater licenses. However, Rhode Island, along with the other New England states, has only recently started to discuss licensing as a possible means of collecting better data and raising revenue in order to better manage saltwater fish stocks. The Rhode Island Coastal Institute played a key role in this process by facilitating a series of open "subcommittee" meetings to discuss the licensing issue, as mandated by the state legislature. I attended these meetings and conducted a survey to find out more about what people were fishing for, why and how they perceived the license. The survey results showed an even split between people who wanted the license and people who did not want it. In the end however the Coastal Institute subcommittee voted unanimously against any sort of license, even a free one. This is good because the license needs to be thought through more thoroughly if it is going to do a good job at helping to manage the fishery. At this point the type of license that is realistically being discussed might not do much besides raise money for DEM, and even that might not be enough money to improve management. Overall the license needs to be reconsidered and the goals of such a program need to be re-assessed. I recommend looking at other possible management techniques along with continuing to work with the license.